Island states demand finance

Sherita Sharma
Tuesday, December 11, 2012

MEMBERS of the Alliance of Small Island States, including Fiji, are demanding that developed countries deliver their pledges as well as ensure additional climate finance is easily accessible with clear targets on its delivery over the next phase.

Developed countries pledged at the 2009 Copenhagen UN climate change summit to provide "new, additional resources" of about $30billion for the period 2010-2012, commonly called "fast-start finance".

A 19-member delegation from Fiji has positioned itself at the negotiations to call on developed countries to address the "funding gap" between the end of fast-start-finance this year and the $US100b ($F176b)per year pledge by 2020.

AOSIS chair and Nauru's permanent representative to the United Nations, Marlene Moses, said they were still concerned at the progress of negotiations on finance.

"Developed countries have committed to mobilise $100billion per year by 2020 to fund adaptation and mitigation in developing countries," she said.

Ms Moses said concrete commitments and clarity on finance including a mid-term goal to assess progress towards achieving the $100b goal was needed.